Are mortgages the new marriage?

New research has revealed that for people in the UK, sharing a mortgage is one of the most important and binding ventures they can make with a partner.

Getting a mortgage with your partner is a bigger commitment than having children or getting married, according to almost half of the regions of the UK.

The team at Online Mortgage Advisor, onlinemortgageadvisor. co.uk, undertook the study as part of ongoing research into British attitudes towards the importance of mortgages and how this was perceived compared to other big relationship commitments.

And of the 2310 Britons aged 18 and over were quizzed about what they felt were the biggest relationship commitments.

Wanting to delve a little deeper, all respondents were then asked what they considered to be the biggest commitment and provided with a list of milestones; including having children, getting married and getting a joint mortgage.

They were asked to select the commitment that they felt showed the most commitment.

The team broke down the answers according to the respondents’ region, in order to reveal area breakdowns.

And in Scotland getting married was seen by 41 per cent of those asked saw marriage as the biggest commitment with 38 per cent viewing having a shared mortgage as the biggest commitment.

According to the poll, of those who stated that they considered having a mortgage together to be the biggest commitment that they could make within their we are seeing a shift in priorities.

“It’s acceptable now to own a house and live together out of wedlock as people feel increasingly less pressure to make traditional commitments when owning a home is more binding from a legal perspective.

“Tying yourself to someone for a long period of time and putting money into something that will belong to both of you equally is not a decision to be taken lightly.

“Having a joint mortgage is often seen as the new marriage, as there are more legal implications and still a great deal of devotion, as people are willing to make a huge financial investment in their partnership.”